A Kiss
by FadingMoonlight
Summary: During a bodyguard mission that turned out to have a little twist for them, secret boyfriends Kiba and Shino have a little discussion about their situation.


**NOTES-** *Insert the usual disclaimer that I don't own Kiba or Shino or any other of the Naruto characters that might have been mentioned.*

The line, 'A kiss can be a comma, a question or an exclamation mark.' was a line I found on some quotes site, so I didn't come up with it nor do I know where it's actually from. I thought it was beyond cute so used it as inspiration for this piece.

For whatever I really love this, so I almost didn't upload it because I wanted to keep it to myself. I really can't put a finger on why I like this story above some of my others, but i really hope you love it as much as I do.

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"Will you kiss me, if I ask you to?" Small pink lips pursed together against the desire to smother the ones that were so close, and yet so far away.

"I am your servant; if it is what you want, it is my duty to provide it." Anyone who heard would think of it as a completely emotionless statement, but to those who knew the back story the hidden emotions were overwhelming. The smaller of the two persons turned away slightly, tears obvious in the dark eyes. "Is there a problem?"

"Why?" The response was no more than whisper. "Why does it have to be like this?"

"Master…"

"I don't want this!" The young noble grabbed fists of his servants clothing in a desperate attempt to display his frustration. "I don't want you to kiss me because you have to! I want you to kiss me because you love me! You do love me right, Tanjiro? Please tell me this isn't all because you have too!"

Before the older man could fashion a reply the noble buried his head next to his hands in the others chest, afraid of the answer to his outburst. "I love you. I want you to love me too." He told the fabrics.

Tanjiro waited a moment to get his emotions under control; trying to keep the shock and sadness from doing more than flitting over his matured features. Then he gently raised a hand to caress his young admirer's coarse brown hair. "I…Of course I love you. But you are my young master, it isn't proper-"

"I don't care! You're everything to me, Tanjiro! I don't want to always want to hide that!"

"If your father knew-"

"Maybe if father knew he wouldn't be trying to marry me off to that girl!"

"The marriage is to further the alliance with your neighboring country, my liege. It must be done for the good of your peoples." Tanjiro made an attempt at reasoning, but knew it was futile when the young noble looked up and closed as much of the distance between them as he dared.

"I don't want to spend my life with some woman I don't know." He protested, "I want to spend it with you. Will you kiss me Tanjiro?"

"I-"

"Lord Michio!" A high female voice rang through the couple's moment of near perfection, effectively freezing the elder before his resolve could falter and he kissed his lord. "Lord Michio, I would like to speak with you!"

"Go." Tanjiro disengaged the boy from his clothes before he could protest. "Call for me if you require anything. Lady Ayumi is waiting for you."

With a sniffle the noble wiped at his watery eyes and resigned himself to having to leave his love for the women he was to marry. He scowled as the call cut through the silence of the dark again. Then he wrapped his arms quickly around his servant's neck and captured the man's lips before any objections could be made.

"A question." Was all Tanjiro could think to mutter when they parted. His lord raised an eyebrow and he continued, "There was a question in that kiss."

"A question in that kiss?" To the young noble a kiss was a kiss; there was nothing more to it.

"A kiss," The elder smiled as he started to lead the confused boy to his meeting, "can be a comma, a question mark or an exclamation point."

"What does that mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like."

The female voice rang a final time across the stage as the lights dimmed and a heavy red curtain swept down from above. A moment later the lights in the theater came on and the voice of the narrator boomed out with the information of the intermission.

Backstage Kiba and Shino parted and watched for a while as the stage crew bustled around changing the scenery.

"Kiba, Shino." They turned to the smiling woman behind them, "They want you in costume. They want to check a last time that the changes made are alright. Thank you again, for filling in at the last minute."

"Think nothing of it." Shino replied politely as he replaced his glasses on his nose.

"Oh, no," She insisted, "When Akio got injured and Seiji took that other part we thought we'd have to shut down the whole production! What would we have done without our two main actors! It was a miracle to have you two here and willing. There was no way we could have found two new actors and taught them the lines in time."  
"Not to mention they had to be willing to do all the lovey-dovey scenes." Kiba smiled at the thought of all the stolen kisses that took place in the shonen-ai love story, and of what most men would do at the very thought of having to do any of those scenes.

"That did severely cut the auditioning rate." The manager admitted, "Which made it that much more of a miracle that you two were willing to take the lead."

"You two were amazing!" The couple of women who were in charge of costume grabbed the two boys as they fawned over the performance. "It was so good; it looked like you two actually knew what it's like to have an impossible love like that."

"I love that story," The one currently freeing Kiba from his multitude of layers gave a love-struck sigh, "The very thought of two secret lovers having secret meetings makes my heart flutter."

"It's so romantic." Shino's art director clutched his costume as if it was the clothing of her own secret lover a moment before continuing to check the measurements of his refitted outfit. "I wish that kind of thing happened in real life."

"It could." Shino said simply, shrugging on the yukata for the next scene. Kiba could feel Shino's eyes as they momentarily flitted to him behind the other's glasses. "I'm sure there are many secret lovers who are too afraid to show themselves."

"Who says they're afraid? Maybe it's for the best." Kiba responded to his teammates hidden prodding with a grin. "Maybe it's something like Tanjiro and Michio have. They wanna be together but society says it's not appropriate."

"Society is perfectly okay with homosexual couples nowadays." Shino pointed out.

"Maybe it's their families." Kiba's costume designer gave another dream-filled sigh, "Parents tend to expect certain things of their children."

"They do, don't they?" Kiba agreed.

"Do your parents expect things of you?" the smaller of the two costume managers asked before having to apologize for tying Kiba's belt too tight in her distraction.

"I believe all parents have at least some expectations for their children." Shino stepped off to the side, having successfully donned his costume for the next few scenes.

"What kind of things for you? What do the parents of shinobi expect?"

"Probably not that they can act like pros for something like this." Even Kiba joined in the giggles. Imaginary parents made in imaginary scowls in each of their minds. Shino just shook his head at the immaturity and watched the trio laugh them out.

"My mom would never look at me the same if she saw me in this getup." Kiba's art director gave one final tug on his sash, flipped a collar and smoothed out the creases that had formed on his chest.

"Ten minutes!" The stage manager was extra sure to stick his head in to see their progress and be sure everything would be ready in ten minutes.

"Look at that," Kiba got one last pat before the woman stood back to admire her work. "We have ten whole minutes to do whatever we want."

"I kind of want some of those donuts they have hidden over in props. Care to join me Mayu?" The two women schemed together.

"Love too. Now Kiba, Shino," They stopped just inside the door and turned to the two boys, "Sorry, but you can't come."

"You better watch your make-up. We don't want to have to redo it."

"If we do, nobody will be happy." They threatened and even went as far as to glare until both boys agreed. Then the boys were left alone.

They stood in comfortable silence as the voices of their co-workers drifted farther and farther down the hall. Finally, slowly, almost unnoticeably the bug-nin shifted his way across the small dressing room. The multiple racks of flowing costumes barely even rustled in his wake. If his senses hadn't been sharpened by years of experience Kiba might have been startled when his hand was stolen.

"Walk with me."

Nobody spoke to the silent duo as they ghosted their way through all the secret hallways at the back of the theater. In turn they spoke to no one. Careful to avoid any hallways that might lead them to hordes of fans the two boys made their way through the building to a small grove of trees behind the theater. The wind barely moved the stiff material of Kiba's kimono when he opened the door and playfully pulled his companion into the trees.

Then he gave Shino a shove that sent him stumbling into a small oak.

"Kiba?" Surprise found itself a quaint little home in that one word.

"I'm unhappy, Shino." Kiba pouted, watching sadly until Shino sighed and resigned himself to Kiba's unspoken will. He plucked the glasses off his face.

"Why?"

Kiba stepped closer and closer still, until the usually hidden jewels in Shino's eye sockets were close enough he could steal them if he wanted. "Cause you're showing off. Cause you're so willing to take off your glasses in front of all those peoples."

"It's business Kiba. It's for the good of the mission."

"So? It still took me years to get under them. Makes me think all that time I spent seducing you was for nothing!"

"It wasn't all for naught." Shino punctuated his statement with well practiced kiss, "Even if I've shared my eyes you still have the rest of me, which no one else does."

Kiba just pouted again, "You know, I can't decide if I'm happy that I get you to say such cheesy lines or not, but, I guess you kiss me without me needing to ask you too." He said with a small smile, twisting his lines until they were barely recognizable.

Shino knew this game.

"I'm yours." He let the words roll in a small, seductive growl, "Whatever you want you can have, if, of course, I can provide it. Is that not good enough?" Shino asked when he saw the other boy's eyes narrow.

"You know what I want; and it's the one thing you refuse to give me. Why is that?"

"Kiba…"

"Come on Shino, I hate this. I don't want it to always be like this!" In his usual brash fashion Kiba vented his building anger by grabbing fistfuls of the others costume to pull him down to his height. "When we have to hide like this I always feel like you're just doing this for me! Like you don't want anyone else to know cause you don't actually care about me like I do you! Like it's just so I feel better." With an over enthusiastic tug Kiba crashed Shino's lips into his own; the unsaid proclamation of his love burning between the two.

Shino reacted. His reply was as equally unsaid and as equally unneeded of being voiced. It was said in the way his lips molded to the others boys and his eyes flitted shut so nothing would distract him from the pure feeling of it. In the way he held his breath as if the moment would burst at the slightest sound. In the way his hand caressed the course brown hair as if he'd never feel it again. It was all said in the way this happened every time. Kiba just affected the stoic boy in such mysterious ways it almost bothered him. Almost.

"Kiba." The taller boy mumbled when the dog-nin let up enough. "We shouldn't-"

"Shut up. I don't care and you know it! You're everything to me and I hate that I have to hide it because of you! You even admitted nobody cares about gay couples!"

Shino forced himself to take a moment and calm down his racing heart, "It's not all me, your mother-" He tried to reason. Sense was beyond the wild nin.

"Screw my mother! She has no right to tell me who I can and cannot see! Besides," To Shino's relief his comrade seemed to cool down a bit, "she's the one who keeps getting after me about how I ain't seeing anyone and that if I'm not careful she'll get me one of those marriage council things." He spat.

"Those are good for peoples. Choji seems perfectly happy with the girl they found for him." The bug-nin gazed lovingly downwards at the boy wrapped around his chest.

"But I'm not Choji." Kiba whined, finally letting his frustration leave him completely, making him realize how tired he was. "And I don't I don't want to live with some woman. I-I want to spend it with you." Kiba blushed into his secret boyfriends clothes, though he knew there was a good chance said boyfriend mirrored the color. "But in order to do that, peoples have to know about us, Shino."

He was begging now, Shino could tell. Though he couldn't say this was the first time. He knew Kiba was unhappy with their current arrangement. It was a topic that often came up between them. Much as he tried the silent boy couldn't put his finger on exactly why he was so adamantly against their relationship going into light.

"Please…" the taller boy cut off the whine before it could get too far into his head. Still the question burned on Kiba's lips and even when they parted it hung in the air.

"It has been nice on stage," Shino admitted, "Not having to pretend there isn't a spark…"

"See," A smile finally lit up Kiba's face, "it'll be nice."

"We should go back. The intermission will end soon." Kiba only smiled wider when Shino avoided the topic.

"You know," Kiba gazed up at his hidden lover as they left the small grove, "I love how each and every kiss with you seems different from the last. You're never boring." He gave one last attempt at begging Shino. No matter how stoic someone was they couldn't get away from compliments, as was Kiba's view.

"A kiss can be a comma, a question or an exclamation mark." Shino quoted against his boyfriends' lips as he stole a last kiss before returning to the main area behind the stage to get prepared for part two of the act.


End file.
